2025 Lake Elmo Draft Strategic Plan

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2025 STRATEGIC PLAN 5 Realistic communication of capacity Perspective Situational awareness Boundaries Know and understand your role Respect diversity of elected leaders (different needs, tones, styles, backgrounds, etc.) The second session also included a brief discussion of the organization’s values. The chart below indicates the nine current values. Prior to the session, the participants were asked to each identify their three priority values from a long list of organizational values. As a session activity, the group reviewed the similarities between the existing values and the brainstormed values of the group’s participants. The group was asked to consider the organizational values and if fewer values (suggested 3, up to 5) would better serve the organization. Current research and trends on organizational effectiveness suggests that organizations are better served by fewer values that are both memorable for people within the organization and meaningful for the community. Several members of the group spoke up and supported the idea of trimming the goals to 3, if possible, or perhaps 4-5 if needed. Within that conversation, there were several guiding suggestions from the group that seemed to have consensus: • Both the existing City values and the brainstormed responses place a high emphasis on excellence when it comes to performing the work the City does. Excellence can describe many elements of the City’s efforts, from the quality of the services it provides to the value of continuous improvement and not settling for satisfactory or good within staff and organizational performance. • There were a number of character traits in both lists, and perhaps finding a value that summarizes the key responses from the group related to the character expectations would be helpful. Some of the character values that were high on both the existing values list and the brainstormed list included integrity, transparency, accountability, trusting, and professional. • The responses also provided value statements related to the City being a service-driven organization, and not just simply a service provider, but one that is engaged, collaborative, and strives to meet its stakeholders needs. In keeping with the concept of servant leadership, the value of serving the community was a common response. With this group feedback and input in mind, I am recommending the City consider the following values and value statements to summarize and support the City’s mission and how it expects the organization to perform. The mission of the City of Lake Elmo is to provide planned, quality public services consistent with the City’s character in a fiscally- responsible manner in partnership with our community. The organization intends to meet this mission by committing to performance consistent with the following values: